Airguard® Reflective Shined Ia A Starring Role At “The Cineroleum”

Advanced metallised membrane steps into the limelight at a ‘pop-up’ cinema project in London

DuPont™ AirGuard® usually played its key role of vapour control and optimising airtightness ‘backstage’ and discreetly hidden from view within the building envelope. Normally it is this advanced membrane’s imperviousness to air and moisture, together with its very low emissivity against radiant heat loss that gets specifiers excited.

However, for a ‘pop-up’ project in the design hub of Clerkenwell in London, it was the incidental beauty and robust-yet-lightweight qualities of DuPont™ AirGuard® that were celebrated when a group of young designers converted a derelict petrol station into a temporary cinema.

Over a rapid, hands-on construction stage by this creative young team, followed by six weeks of cinema programmes in August and September (2010), DuPont™ AirGuard® acted as a luxurious ‘ruched’ curtain that rose and fell around the makeshift auditorium. The Cineroleum team chose the membrane precisely because of its ease of handling, together with its ability to resist the less than reliable London weather! The fact that it also made a striking and rather glamorous ‘wrapping’ for the project was an added bonus to help draw the crowds.

Primarily constructed using donated and reclaimed materials, The Cineroleum was conceived by a collective of young artists, designers and architects both as a way of transforming derelict or unused urban spaces and as ‘an improvisation of the decadent interiors that greeted audiences during cinema's golden age.’ Popcorn, paper tickets, elaborate signage and flip-down seats all helped to recreate the familiar excitement of cinema-going.

“DuPont Building Innovations, of which DuPont™ AirGuard® is part of a high-tech offer designed to bring value, beauty and sustainability to the built environment, was delighted to support this fascinating initiative, especially as our materials are designed to bring lasting, reliable performance and can often be re-used after their original installation and application,” says Tim Smith, DuPont Building Innovations, Building Envelopes Business Development Manager for United Kingdom and Ireland.